To:ROSA LUXEMBURG[2]

Published:First published in 1925.
      Sent from Paris to Berlin.
      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,
      Progress Publishers,1974,
      Moscow,Volume 34,
      page397.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive
      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

May 18, 1909

WerteGenossin,

Isent you yesterday by registered book-post a copy of my book on
philosophy—in memory of our conversation about Mach when we last
met.[3]

Ifpossible, I should like to ask you to write a note about this book forNeue Zeit[4]for the “Verzeichnis der in der Redaktion eingelaufenen Druck-Schriften”=[1]. If this necessitates any
formality, such as sending the book direct to the editors (who do not understand
Russian), please drop me a line about it and I shall try to send a special copy
to the editors ofNeue Zeit,

You,of course, have heard from Comrade Tyszka about our internal struggle among
the Bolsheviks. Your article against the otzovists and
ultimatumists[5]has pleased everyone very
much[6]; it is a pity that you writeso rarelyin Russian; you prefer the rich Social-Democratic Party of
the Germans to the poor Social-Democratic Party of the Russians.

Allthe best! Regards to Tyszka. With greetings.N. Lenin

P.S.The note ofDie Neue Zeiteditors to Rothstein’s (excellent)
article in No. 33 leads me to think that Kautsky himself is none too
pleased now with his defence of the I.L.P. in
Brussels[7].... Am I right?

[1]“Listof printed matter received by the editorial board.”—Ed.

[2]Luxemburg,Rosa(1871–1919)—a prominent member of the
international labour movement, one of the leaders of the Left wing of
the Second International. Started revolutionary activities in the late
eighties, was one of the founders and leaders of the Social-Democratic
Party of Poland. From 1897 took an active part in the German
Social-Democratic movement.

Afterthe revolution of November 1918 in Germany took a leading part
in the Inaugural Congress of the Communist Party of Germany.  In
January 1919 she was arrested and killed by order of the Scheidemann
government.

[3]Leninand Krupskaya visited Rosa Luxemburg early in January 1908 when
they stopped over in Berlin on their way to Geneva from Stockholm.

[4]Thenotice (note) concerning the appearance of Lenin’s. bookMaterialism and Empirio-Criticismwas published in the
journalDie Neue Zeit, 1. Band, No. 2, October 8, 1909.

[5]Otzovists(from the Russian wordotzovat—recall)—the name given to some of the Bolsheviks
(Bogdanov, Pokrovsky, Lunacharsky, Bubnov and others) who demanded
that the Social-Democratic deputies in the Third Duma should be
recalled and that work in the legal organisations should be
stopped. In 1908 the otzovists formed a group of their own and waged a
struggle against Lenin. They emphatically refused to sit in the Duma
or work in the trade unions, co-operative societies and other mass
legal and semi-legal organisations of the workers. They strove to shut
themselves up within the framework of the illegal organisation: to
tear the Party away from the non-party masses and expose it to the
attacks of reaction. Lenin called the otzovists “liquidators of a new
type” and “Mensheviks inside out”.

Avariety of otzovism was ultimatumism. The ultimatumists differed
from the otzovists only in form. They proposed that an ultimatum
should first be presented to the Social-Democratic group in the Duma
and if it was not complied with, the Social-Democratic deputies should
be recalled from the Duma.

Ultimatumismwas virtually otzovism in disguise. Lenin called the
ultimatumists “bashful otzovists”.

Inthe spring of 1909 the otzovists, ultimatumists and god-builders
formed a promotion group to organise an anti-Party school on the Isle
of Capri (Bogdanov, Alexinsky, Lunacharsky and others). This group, in
effect, was the centre of the anti-Party faction of otzovists,
ultimatumists, and god-builders.

Ameeting of the extended editorial board ofProletaryheld
in June 1909 adopted a decision that “Bolshevism, as a definite
tendency in the R.S.D.L.P. has nothing in common with otzovism or
ultimatumism” and called upon the Bolsheviks to resolutely combat
this defection from revolutionary Marxism. Bogdanov (Maximov), the
guiding spirit of otzovism, was expelled from the ranks of the
Bolsheviks.

Later,in his book“Left-Wing” Communism—an Infantile
Disorder, Lenin wrote that the Bolsheviks were able to make an
orderly retreat and preserve their forces after the failure of the
revolution because “they ruthlessly exposed and expelled the
revolutionary phrase-mongers, those who did not wish to understand
that one had to retreat, that one had to know how to retreat, and that
one had absolutely to learn how to work legally in the most
reactionary of parliaments, in the most reactionary of trade unions,
co-operative and insurance societies and similar organisations”^^(see
Vol. 31, p. 28, of this edition)^^.

[6]Thearticle referred to was “Revolutionary Hangover” published inProletaryNo. 44, April 8 (21), 1909.

[7]Thereference is to Kautsky’s stand at the meeting of the
International Socialist Bureau on October 11, 1908 on the question of
the British Labour Party’s membership of the Second
International. This is dealt within Lenin’s article “Meeting of the International Socialist Bureau”^^(see Vol. 15 of this edition)^^.